Competency Assessment of the Last Year Students of Tabriz Dentistry School in the Major Skills Needed for a New Dentist

Background: Assessment of educational courses has a critical impact on quality improvement in all curricula. Surveys aimed at alumni and graduating students may be useful for the evaluation of the program outcomes and revision. The aims of this study were to describe levels of competency of last year students of an Iranian dental school in the major skills needed for a new dentist and to investigate its relationship with background factors such as gender, marriage status, entrance exam score , entrance quotas and their economic status. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive analytic study, 55 last year dental students filled out a valid and reliable questionnaire including demographic characteristics and 132 competencies that could be rated on a four point Likert’s Scale. The data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, independent-samples t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: Students' total competencies mean score was 47.48±2.03 out of 100. The lowest and highest score belonged to oral diseases diagnosis (%18.48) and Preventive dentistry (%66.06) respectively. The past dental hygiene students continued their education as a doctoral degree were more competent than the others but there were no significant differences between competency levels of other quotas. The competency score had no significant relationship with marriage and economic statuses of students as well as their entrance exam score. Conclusion: responses to the students’ self-reported preparedness described the general state of competency of the last year dental students as fairly satisfactory. However, the theoretical backgrounds related to some subjects need to be more emphasized. Key words: Competency, Dentistry Students Education